Multimedia
Blogs
Forum
Affordable HD
Whitepapers
Newsletters
Events
Advertisers
DCP Directory
MillimeterExperimental Distribution
Jun 2, 2008 11:00 AM, By Eric Melin
Film festivals go from here to awesome.
Getting Attention
From Here to Awesome (FHTA) is not the only outlet available to independent content creators eager to see their work receive more attention.
In order to maximize a film's distribution possibilities, Breakthrough Distribution will assign a project manager to help each filmmaker map out the appropriate combination of self-, retail-, or hybrid-distribution services. Within these services, Breakthrough can help get a movie released via a number of different outlets.
“Hybrid distribution is the most robust strategy as it includes the other approaches,” says Breakthrough President Jeff Rosen. “In hybrid distribution, a filmmaker can split up his rights: sell direct from his website, sign a deal with Showtime or Comcast, syndicate digital content across aggregators, ink a limited home-video deal with Image, sell into 10 foreign territories with 10 different sales agents, obtain a cover-mount deal with a U.K. paper, and exploit other channels.”
Like FHTA, Breakthrough relies heavily on business relationships that cross the lines of traditional film, developing a network of partners and the expertise to provide producers with the information, tools, strategic frameworks, and services necessary to successfully distribute their projects, retain their rights, and build their careers, Rosen says, adding that the platform can also help other content creators (authors, musicians, and game producers) in similar ways.
Scilla Andreen, CEO and cofounder of multiplatform independent film distributor IndieFlix, says she believes that an abundant supply of untapped content is just waiting to be discovered. “The film festival remains the primary means of discovering and viewing independent film and is replacing the art house. The Internet is next,” Andreen says. “The time is now. Consumers are beginning to plug in directly, and pressure is building for all forms of distribution to become highly flexible and offer an interactive marketing component.”
IndieFlix curates and programs content for third-party delivery platforms that don't accept submissions directly from the individual filmmaker. The company can help you coordinate the best marketing strategy for your movie. “The most effective marketing has been the use of the social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Veoh, Imeem, Ning, etc.,” Andreen says. “We also do lots of other grassroots marketing, such as tying in with charities, and that seems to boost sales a lot.”
It doesn't get more grassroots than Brave New Theaters, an online distribution system formed in 2003 as a way to get Robert Greenwald's controversial documentary Uncovered: The War on Iraq to interested audiences in the face of a traditional media that refused to cover the film. “We had to figure out a way to get this story out without relying on a television deal or selling it to a studio,” says Jim Gilliam, creator of Brave New Theaters. “So we did it ourselves and let anyone host a screening for free.”
By using the Brave New Theaters' online community as a promotional tool, a filmmaker can get press and direct revenue — provided the movie is issue-oriented. “It's all about finding screening hosts. A key way we've done that for our films, which are all political in nature, is reach out to nonprofits and activist groups who care about the issue,” Gilliam says. “We ask them to send emails to their members to host screenings, and we give them a cut of DVD sales. Then the hosts drum up interest in their local communities and reach out to press.” — E.M.
To comment on this article, email the Digital Content Producer editorial staff at feedback@digitalcontentproducer.com.
